Journaling is much more than just jotting down a few thoughts. It is the art of self-exploration, introspection, stress reduction and processing your feelings. It stimulates your brain and helps you work through issues that you present while you engage in writing.

Journaling has been proven to decrease certain health conditions, improve cognitive functioning and help strengthen the immune system.

Journaling is a way for people to process their thoughts and feelings about any number of problems or issues that may be going on in their lives. It can help release emotions about events of the past that are troubling to you that you haven’t been able to relate to anyone else.

When you write down your feelings, thoughts and emotions, it gives you the advantage of going back later, analyzing it and seeing things that you didn’t think about initially. It’s almost like playing a game of chess where, as things start to play out, you see different aspects open up as it progresses and you realize how many different ways it could change or be affected by the way you think or look at it. This is where you break out of the mode of thinking sequentially and it opens up new avenues of problem solving.

When you write things down it also gives you the ability to go back and see what kind of goals you set for yourself at some point and what kind of progress you have made. It may also help you gain some insight about how you think and start making adjustments in the way you approach things.

You might want to include your feelings as well as your thoughts to give you some insight as to what some of the driving forces are in your life that affect your decision making processes. The potential for insight and personal growth are amazing.

When you first start out journaling, find your own path. One size does not necessarily fit all.

It might be that you are not a computer person and find that hand writing all your notes in red ink is what really does it for you and allows you to really open up. Write about anything that comes to mind.

You could write about something really traumatic in your life or something really uplifting and gratifying.

The real key here is to let it flow from you, express your thoughts and feelings and then come back later to read it again and gain insight from it. You might want to add things like the weather conditions, phase of the moon and your dietary intake as well, just to see if there are any parallels later on.

You might be surprised how differently you think if you didn’t get a good night’s sleep, had an argument or ill words with a loved one or a friend, ate lots of junk food or had some changes in the weather. Who knows what insights all this information might bring your way?